Ca Level
- Thread starter bohlke
- Start date
jdieck
New member
Baking the baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) which has a slight PH lowering effect turns it into Soda Ash (Codium Carbonate) that has a significant PH increasing effect.
Take a box of Baking Soda spread it on a cooking try or Pyrex glass cooking flat bowl and heat it in the oven at 350*F for 2 hours, let it cool and is ready to use.
Take a box of Baking Soda spread it on a cooking try or Pyrex glass cooking flat bowl and heat it in the oven at 350*F for 2 hours, let it cool and is ready to use.
jdieck
New member
It does change but the PH increase is temporary. (Same as the reduction when using only Baking Soda)
So the Alkalinity increased. Keep on adding 1/2 tsp dissolved in a bit of RO/DI every 24 hours until you increase it to between 9 and 10.
Also keep monitoring the Calcium and adjust for any amounts consummed.
I think is also time to start a balanced supplementation. With your PH I would recommend Kalk dripping.
How are you measuring the PH?
Have you tried increasing the aereation in the tank to see if it increases?
So the Alkalinity increased. Keep on adding 1/2 tsp dissolved in a bit of RO/DI every 24 hours until you increase it to between 9 and 10.
Also keep monitoring the Calcium and adjust for any amounts consummed.
I think is also time to start a balanced supplementation. With your PH I would recommend Kalk dripping.
How are you measuring the PH?
Have you tried increasing the aereation in the tank to see if it increases?
Henry Bowman
Reefing since '87
bohlke,
Laugh back at your wife. Look at my occupation and then touch the inside of a 350 degree oven, the mark it leaves on your skin it called baking, well burning on human skin but cakes, cookies pies bake.
Remember, if it's smoking, it's cooking. When its black it's done !
Laugh back at your wife. Look at my occupation and then touch the inside of a 350 degree oven, the mark it leaves on your skin it called baking, well burning on human skin but cakes, cookies pies bake.
Remember, if it's smoking, it's cooking. When its black it's done !
jdieck
New member
Either the kit is not reading the PH correctly or there is high concentration of CO2 inside your house.
You can test which one is the culprit by taking a couple of cups of tank water, test it's PH, then set the water outside with a small aereation pump to aereate the water overnight. Test the PH of the aereated water left outside. If the PH increased the CO2 in the house is high, if did not the PH test kit might not be measuring correctly.
BTW Kits are difficult to read. If you can aford it I would recommend a PH monitor.
bohlke
PBITAWA
I added another 3/4 tsp with topoff today. Ca is remaining steady, maybe slightly lower. I only have one SPS in the tank so I am assuming that is normal. I tested KH before adding the baked baking soda and it was back to 6.7. I will test again in the morning. Now that I am getting the KH back up my xenia started pulsing again, while I was upping the Ca it stopped pulsing. Ph was above 8.0, I did find a test probe (how I miss my old job with calibrated equipment) that was pretty cheap ($25). Wondering if that is too cheap to be useful.
jdieck
New member
The Milwaukee PH600 has an accuracy of +/- 0.2 PH so if you read 8.0 it could be anywhere between 7.8 and 8.2 Unfortunately similar to a test kit) It might do the job just insure that it is calibrated with a reference solution. It has only a single point calibration so I would recommend a 7.0 reference for calibration. Did you get a manual with it?
jdieck
New member
Yes it is not much of an improvement
Many meters with external probe are 10 to 20 times more accurate.
While the pen portable one is +/1 0.2PH This milwaukee seems to be about +/- 0.01 PH but temperature compensation has to be done manually
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...roduct_Code=MIL-SM101&Category_Code=Milwaukee
The pin point with automatic temperature compensation has an accuracy of about +/- 0.02PH
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...OD&Product_Code=PIN-PH&Category_Code=Pinpoint
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